Social Question

Why do people follow and believe in right wing ideology?

I am the exact opposite.
I do not believe in an afterlife and believe in abortion if it is second term or less and do not believe in capital punishment since I feel that actual life is sacred since that is all that you have. I feel that mild sentences that involve drug users such as marijuana and other light drugs deserve lesser sentences and that heavy drug offenders deserve the highests penalty of the law. We should really punish the pushers and not the users of the explicit drugs as the users are the real slaves.

I do not understand your question. So what you are saying is if someone believes in a god or afterlife that makes them “right wing”? Why can’t someone believe in god, support decriminalizing marijuana, support abortion rights and the enviroment at the same? I didn’t know there was a rule saying that all “liberals” must be atheists.

Conservatives seem to believe that the best of things lie in long held beliefs and values and that change threatens the fabric of those sacred and always true beliefs and values. There explanations for why these old beliefs and values are best invariable involve circular logic than pins truth to ancient teaching and preaching that they believe cannot and must not be challenged.

Entwined with these beliefs are notions of the superiority of men, of Christians and in many cases of the white race. They believe that affluence is deserved by those with money because they obtain their wealth through hard work, and innovation. They believe the poor stay that way because they are lazy and lack the brains, initiative and work ethic to succeed. They view programs to assist the poor and the sick as money wasted on those who have refused to better themselves as they believe they themselves did. They believe America is a level playing field where anyone who works hard and manages their money can improve their lot.

Wow, what gross generalizations of millions of people. How can you fairly characterize huge numbers of people whose ideology while slanting in the same direction varies vastly in degree.

I know many who believe in the pull yourself up by your bootstraps because it is what they did, not because they were born with a silver spoon. And let’s face it, there are many who do work the system when they could be out working a job instead, not all by any means but to say all poor are energetic and innovative etc. and are simply repressed by wasps is another gross generalization.

@rooeytoo I grew up in a poor family myself and I never had one thing handed to me my entire life. Even when I was a kid I didn’t get nothing unless I passed newspapers or cut someones grass to earn money for what I wanted. I work now and have worked for everything I have ever gotten. The fact is many of these conservative politicians were born with a silver spoon in their mouth who take away from programs that do help many people.

@Jabe73 – My family was not wealthy or poor but my brother and I had jobs and worked. My brother is in his 70’s and still working. I am 65 and still working. And really I wouldn’t have it any other way. I am who I am because of it and I like who I am.

I don’t know the statistics for the financial backgrounds of all conservative politicians, again to say they were all born wealthy is just another generalization. You said you didn’t know all liberals had to be atheists, I don’t think all conservatives are rich either.

Is there some specific program whose eradication has deterred you from becoming who you want to be?

I agre there seems to be quite a lot of generalization here. I’ve met people worth millions who are liberal and poor mountain people who are conservative to the nth degree. There are liberal religious people and conservative athiests. Nothing is as clear-cut as the U.S. general-media would have us believe, they are after all, selling a product.

Conservatives, liberals, goat-farmers everyone believes what they believe because their life experience has shown them it’s the truth.

I think your question is too simplistic by saying you are the exact opposite. Do you mean of extreme right wing people who do not want to think and who have a need to be led, grouped, and told what to think to the point of loosing their free will ? The beliefs that you say you have are not ones that describe you to a set general category, and you generalize to the point of not realizing the complexities of the world. Some of the answers here are too specific for their generalization too. You are not the exact opposite of a huge group. You have values that define you but anyone in any huge group may also agree with you…or not.

Four researchers who culled through 50 years of research literature about the psychology of conservatism report that at the core of political conservatism is the resistance to change and a tolerance for inequality, and that some of the common psychological factors linked to political conservatism include:* Fear and aggression* Dogmatism and intolerance of ambiguity* Uncertainty avoidance* Need for cognitive closure* Terror management

Your definitions are far too rigid. I myself am a bleeding heart liberal and I believe in the death penalty and have a quite a firm belief in the divine and religion. I have a good friend who is gay, smokes pot every day of his life, is atheist which, according to you, is a basic tenet of being liberal and is about as conservative as they come. Why is he conservative? He’s one of those conservatives who thinks that the government should almost completely stay out of people’s pockets and only take taxes for a very few things, like roads. He was very opposed to the health care bill.

Despite what many people here seem to believe, there is nothing wrong with either extreme ideology. My personal issue with extreme conservatives is pretty much social. I don’t like how some read: “not all” conservatives want to take a good portion of my rights away. I couldn’t care less that they are pro-life and hate gay people. What gets me is when they tell me that I shouldn’t have the right to get an abortion or marry someone of my same sex.

I’m sure there are a bunch of conservatives sitting around somewhere wondering why there are left wing liberals who smoke pot, get abortions and want to marry someone with the same genitalia. But, hey, those people are stupid and judgmental, right?

Great question, @Kraken Some are wealthy or well placed in corporations and are serving their own interests by supporting a movement that constantly wants to reduce taxes for the rich and slash services for the poor so there will be less financial demands on the rich to support them. These are the corporatists. But they are nowhere near a large enough voting block to get accomplish their objectives alone. So right-wing political leaders must come up with talking points that appeal to middle class and poor voters, convincing them to vote against their own economic interests and in support of an oligarchy they have little or no hope of benefiting from. The wealthy corporatists and those who work for them to curry their favor tend to be the leaders of the right-wing movement. They are the genesis of the “I’ve got mine, screw you.” philosophy.They are the authoritarian leaders.

Many of the lower income right wingers are drawn from a personality type called right-wing authoritarian followers. This personality type has been studied in depth by Dr. Robert Altemeyer of the University of Manitoba. His book, The Authoritarians is available free as a PDF download.

Right wing authoritarian followers tend to be people who grew up in highly authoritarian homes. Their parents often stressed to them how unsafe the world outside is, and how threatening strangers who are “not like us” are likely to be.

They tend to be highly inbred in their social interactions, sticking to people who think just like them and gravitating to news and information sources that never challenge them. So long as they are supported by friends, they are highly aggressive when challenged and willing to strike out verbally and even physically if necessary at others who do not share their ideology. They are the perfect posse. If an authoritarian leader tells them to get a rope, they are far more likely that the general population to act on that urging. They also have highly compartmentalized minds. That means that they are nearly incapable of realizing that two separate beliefs they hold are mutually exclusive. Even if challenged, they will pull out one belief at a time, examine it against their ideology and prejudices, and if it passes that muster, deem it true and file it back in its ealed compartment before separately pulling out the next belief for the same treatment.

A good for instance is the common right-wing claim that Obama is a Communist and a Nazi. The Nazis were the mortal enemies of Communists. It is ridiculous to believe that one person would be both at one time. But when challenged, a right-wing extremist will look at only one belief at a time. “Is Obama a Commie? I hate commies, and I hate him, Did my leaders say he is? Yes, they did, so yes, he is a Commie.”

Next they check Nazi. “Is Obama a Nazi? I hate Nazis, and I hate him, Did my leaders say he is? Yes, they did, so yes, he is a Nazi.”

I realize this is going to sound offensive to many who share such right-wing behaviors, but the research behind it is solid enough it deserves the light of day. We have only to look at pre-war Germany, the Brownshirt movement and the far-right fascist behaviors to realize this psychology can grow and can be extremely dangerous.

By the way, we call it Right-wing Authoritarianism here because that is the way the movement here leans. But the same sort of behavior pertained to the ideological left-wing extremists that pushed the brutal side of Communism in the former Soviet Union.

@KatawaGrey: “I’m sure there are a bunch of conservatives sitting around somewhere wondering why there are left wing liberals who smoke pot, get abortions and want to marry someone with the same genitalia. But, hey, those people are stupid and judgmental, right?”

These are my thoughts on the matter, but the way I see it, we have extremists on both sides who tend to get a lot of attention and then there are average people who agree with some of what the extremists say/do/believe but are more moderate. However you don’t hear much from those people and the extremists often see the moderates as weak, unwilling to take a stand on anything, morally bankrupt, yadayada.

Modern America is increasingly polarized and the Right has historically had an edge in unity, though they are currently starting to fall victim to the infighting that has plagued the Left for at least decades. Nobody is happy with how things are and many feel that the only way to change things is to go to one extreme or the other since trying to compromise doesn’t work; look at how relatively ineffective Congress is if you don’t believe me.

Surprisingly, I agree with @rooeytoo here on something; I feel that many Conservatives are getting an unfair beating just because there are nutcases like Palin and Limbaugh running rampant and making the more intelligent, rational Conservatives look bad. However, I have noticed that, on average, those on the Right seem less concerned about facts than about Dogma, and are often out of touch with reality in that many have never really had it bad. I naturally fear those that are irrational and/or delusional. I’d fear the dingbats on the Left if they really had any power, so I concentrate on the Right.

By the way, I should add that the @ETpro rant above does not apply to true conservatives. It is aimed at a new and growing far-right-wing base that is systematically purging the old Republican Party of any moderate voices, welcoming white supremacists and John Birchers back into the Party, talking openly of secession and 2nd amendment “remedies” if they can’t win at the ballot box and generally fitting the description, Right Wing Nut Job. Once upon a time, we were beset by Left Wing Nut Jobs such as the Weather Underground and the Symbionese Liberation Army and I was just as opposed to the LWNJs.

@ETpro Most of the True Conservatives I know feel likewise and have at least considered switching parties as a result. Unfortunately, we are so used to black-white, either-or thinking that I doubt we could ever break the two-party system.
Personally, I would love to see the GOP split and purge themselves of the festering sickness that ails them and is causing our nation to rot from within. We need more Republicans like Scott Brown.

Footnote: George Bush caused lots of people to become Democrats that otherwise would not have considered changing parties. I voted for Herman….never even considered voting W! don’t want to get started on this..ummm…!

Your second sentence is interesting. Most of us spend a good part of our life coming to conclusions and forming our own philosophies. It keeps the world an interesting place. There is no real answer to your question of “why…..” We are all different and have traveled different roads to arrive in the place where we now are.

Have you ever considered the fact that some people may just think differently than you and that’s perfectly okay? As someone who by nature supposedly believes in diversity and mutual respect, that’s perfectly fine, is it not?

Besides, the whole left vs. right thing is so convoluted and only serves as an oppressive manifestation of a false dichotomy anyway. Left and right have meant different things at different times.

Take me, for instance. I’m pro gun ownership, pro gay rights, pro choice, pro capitalism, pro military (but anti imperialist), pro business, pro conservation, and I’m not religious, but I think that Christianity-bashing is puerile. What does that make me? I’ve had so called right wingers call me a dirty commie at the same time that so called lefties have called me an evil baby killing rethuglican. Doesn’t make sense does it?

Also, depending on who you ask (or what time period you’re from) left and right mean totally different things. For some, it’s all about economics. In a lot of people’s minds, the further you go to the right, the less government interference in business you want until you get to total anarchy. Likewise, the further left you go, the more economic control you wish for. That’s all.

Others see the left vs. right spectrum as a scale of religiosity.
These are the folks that think that far right automatically equals ultra Christian.

Aside from how damn convoluted the terminology about this is, the outright nastiness that comes with it is shocking. I’ve heard self described left wingers describe right “wingedness” as a mental disorder, whereas I’ve also heard righties say the same thing about lefties in equal measure. Does that kind of talk really get us anywhere? Hell, when Bush was in power, there were protests all over the place where you could decapitate an effigy of him at a guillotine. People carried posters around with his face superimposed with Hitler’s. Now that Obama is in office, it’s more or less the same damn thing. See what I’m getting at here? It’s just two groups that attack each other in equal measure, who have made cute little distinctive names for themselves who would just as well control the average joe if they were in power, only in different aspects of said Joe’s life.

So for once, can we stop it with the “but but but right wingers are evil!” and the “leftwingers are all commies!” bullshit because it doesn’t add a goddamn thing to the political discourse.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard I can list a whole slew of links to a social Q&A group called Sodahead.com. Most of its members lean right, and many far right. I can show you time and again where I posted an answer to a political question. My answer was simply presenting facts and how I felt they applied to the policy issue being discussed. In return Iwas scathingly attacked. I was told I had to have drunk the Liberal Koolaid. I was informed I must be terminally stupid as all liberal scum is. I was often threatened to just shut up and go away or else. Many of the replies include ugly caricatures, cartoons and images that are vile beyond belief. If you do not believe this and want links, I will be happy to provide them.

In the face of such aggression and such a push for one-party rule and stamping out all political dissent, it strikes me that a far right wing movement arose in Germany once upon a time. Those good people who stood by and watched it grow and take power, saying to themselves that everyone is all the same and is entitled to their opinion, no matter how violent and extreme, lived (the luck ones among them) to deeply regret it.

I respect diverse opinions. I am more than willing to debate on factual lines and explain why I think a particular policy is good. I am perfectly willing to listen to others disagree and explain opposing views they think are better. I am not willing to listen to people talk about 2nd Amendment remedies if they can’t win their way at the ballot box, though. I would not accept that whether it came from the left or the right.

@ETpro, I know what you are talking abotu ETpro, but with all due respect I can do exactly the same thing and provide links to so-called left wingers responding to facts with death threats, violence, etc.

It may seem to you and some others here that I am in this discussion just to be the resident contrarian and bash liberals. Nothing could be further than the truth. Like you, I am against anyone who wants to assert control over me, no matter which side of the spectrum they are from. I, however, want to point out the hypocrisy of confidently declaring that one particular wing has a monopoly on stupidity, ignorance, or violence.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard I pointed out that ideologues on both extremes are guilty. However, in America today, you do not see huge crowds of left wing nut jobs crowding town hall meetings and shouting down all political debate. You don’t see Planed Parenthood assassinating Christian leaders who advocate against abortion. Martin Luther King was not a dead ringer for David Duke, a Grand Wizard of the Knights of the KKK. And for every left-wing extremist you can link to spouting hate, I can show you hundreds of worse examples on the right. The US is in no danger of being overrun by the far left. We are in danger from the far right. The far right is arming themselves. They are talking of secession, insurrection and “taking out” politicians they disagree with, even though they are elected by a majority of the people.

@ItsAHabit Yes, I am talking about the Nazis. The American far right, who are adopting fascist, corporatist tactics and ideology, are fond of fixating on the word Socialist in the Nazi Party’s name. The movement did begin as a socialist effort to organize workers. But it was subsumed by fascists, who held a far-right racist ideology. Mussolini made their goals very clear. In speaking about his view of socialism, he explained, “Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power.”

The Fascist brought the industrialist leaders into their government. They destroyed the unions and gave the corporations cheap labor and even slave labor in return for support building a massive war machine. Names can be deceiving. North Korea is called the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Do you conclude from that name that it is truly a democratic republic organized for the good of its people?

1) Both sides of the spectrum can get uppity to the point of being dangerous.
2) In this country, only the Far Right has done so at this time; the Far Left doesn’t really have any traction in this country, hasn’t won many if any elections, and to my knowledge doesn’t have a major network.

It seems to me that some people either feel that their shit don’t stink or deny which way the wind is blowing here.

@josie Do you believe that Obama is a Muslim that was not born in this country and is now taking revenge on the US for slavery? Do you believe that the world would be a perfect place if Bush-43’s administration had free reign? Do you believe that hard work will always make one prosper without fail and that the only way to become poor is pure laziness?

If you answer No to any of those questions then you are not a Right Wingnut

@jerv No to all.
But, since you said it, people do not have much choice but to work hard, just like lions have no choice but to chase zebras. But I do not remember anybody promising that hard work will make you prosper, any more than a lion always catches a zebra. Where did that come from? Plus, I know a few folks who believe that Obama’s policies will make the world a perfect place. So what is this all about?

@josie I have heard a lot of crazy things in my years on this planet, and it seems to be getting crazier as time goes on. I also know a few folks who think that Obama is the Messiah, but none of them are even close to being “Right Wingers”.

All I am saying is that it takes more than disagreeing with Obama’s policies to be considered a “Right Winger”: one also has to be batshit crazy and you have demonstrated too much sanity to be lumped into that group.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard: “Have you ever considered the fact that some people may just think differently than you and that’s perfectly okay? As someone who by nature supposedly believes in diversity and mutual respect, that’s perfectly fine, is it not?”

Of course not. There are views that merit condemnation and disdain rather than respect, and any decent person is unlikely to receive “mutual respect” from those who hold such views. There is evil, and there are people who embrace evil. Is the belief that exterminating all the Jews is a good solution to social problems nothing more than a difference of opinion? To concede evil, lunatic doctrines credence or legitimacy is to abet the spread of evil.

I am NOT talking about everyone who votes Republican or even about Tea Party attendees. I do think many of the Tea Party bunch are misguided, wanting the same something for nothing they are so up in arms about when they claim that Tax and Spend Democrats are that sort. They rail against the National Debt, but in survey after survey most refuse to give up the very benefits that drive that debt, and they insist they want even lower taxes even though tax cuts are what ran the debt into the stratosphere to begin with. I think most of them are just misguided followers led along by the Republican right—folks like Dick Armey’s FreedomWorks and other corporate lobbyists.

I have a very different take on the group that tried to come Armed to the Washington Mall, and when they could not, chose to gather in a nearby National Park in Virginia packing heat to commemorate the bombing of the Muir Federal Building in Oklahoma.

I have no room for the kind of deliberate thuggery Dick Armey and others organized during the healthcare town halls. His organization circulated instructions on how to disrupt meetings and have person after person stand up bellowing insults so no discussion of real issues could move forward. That is fascist Brownshirt tactics at work. It is NOT the stuff democracy is made of.

I have no room for this “It’s all the same on both sides.” lie anymore. Right wingers argue that all political violence comes from the left. Maybe it did back in the 60s, but this is 50 years later. We had Oklahoma City with 168 dead, bombing of abortion clinics, assassinations of doctors, the Holocaust Museum killer and many more.

Again, I have complete respect for conservative views. I hold a fair number myself. I do not have respect for argument by straw men, assertion of lies, insults, threats, shouting opponents down and such. Allow that to grow, and it will strangle democracy.

@ETpro, hold on there a second. I wasn’t directing that at you, that was at ratboy. I could be off, but what I got from his statement is that left = pure and good and right = always wrong and evil. I’m not challenging you in any way.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard Sorry if I misconstrued what that was about. I have seen some truly vile criticisms of President Bush and other Republicans from the left as well. And as marginalized as they may be, we still do have environmental terrorist and—what’s perhaps the ultimate oxymoron—militant anti war protesters. I don’t condone political violence on either side so long as our democracy is flourishing. Should a tyrant arise and snuff it out, I will be on the front lines fighting as violently as I can to get it back.

That said, I don’t see where @ratboy equated Tea Party members with Nazism. Did I miss it further up in the discussion?

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard: I didn’t say anything about left or right—I merely presentd an obvious counter-example to your claim that every opinion is “perfectly okay”— a claim that, in my opinion, Is obviously false.

@ETpro, is our democracy flourishing? Who does our government serve? It seems to me that political representation of every stripe has been sold to the highest bidder for several decades. The Roberts’ court sanctioned the doctrine that representation belongs to those that can afford to buy it with the decision that a corporation has the same rights as an individual person.

@ratboy I am deeply concerned about the growth of corporatocracy in America. I see it as the greatest threat to our continued liberty. Even Deocrats have made moves to further it, but the far right are working hard to bring a full-blown oligarchic corporatocracy into being, and the five conservative Republican appointees on the Supreme Court are busily helping achieve it. If they have their way, America may some day be like Haiti under Papa and Baby Doc Duvalier or Nicaragua under The The Somozas. Very good for business. BIG business—owners only.

@rooeytoo I do not consider myself as far left as many other people on here by a long shot. There are many views I would never even talk about that I have to other people but there are few I do talk about. I didn’t support Obama or McCain. I never voted for W Bush or Clinton for either of their terms. I wasn’t old enough to vote before Clinton. Many times I find myself voting for 3rd party candidates or not voting at all.

I do believe in some programs however. I had a buddy that was in and out of jail, mooching off of everyone for a place to live, etc. He attended a Job Corps center to take up carpentry and completely turned his life around, he now makes good money and became a productive member of society. I support student loans. To me whenever a program helps people become part of the working world these programs pay themselves off in many ways.

@Jabe73 And that attitude is what makes you a Communist. See, you’re supposed to kick moochers like that in the teeth and make them sleep in the alley while they starve to death.
Helping others is un-American (at least nowadays)

@wilma@rooeytoo I think you both need to recalibrate your sarcasm detectors.

I was merely overstating the Far Right’s “What’s mine is mine” philosophy with satirical intent, but it appears that I have failed in my delivery. Remind me to keep my day job instead of pursuing a career in stand-up comedy.

@mattbrowne That is despicable Matt. +++++
I am on the same boat as you.
I was raised to be a Catholic but now I am so evolved religiously that I believe in the possibility of Solar System gods such as the Sun and Mother earth and that God clearly cannot be named and that the Gaia earth consciousness is not as silly as we may have thought.

Not for a fleeting second do I or would I ever believe in magic or supernatural unless it is psychically driven. Jesus and Buddha and Mohammad need never have existed in reality since I know that when you die you wink out like a dead star but the spiritual energy that millions of people can impel said peoples to exist forever may not inhabit a corporeal form but through the psychic energy that physically powers ‘The Jesus’ or ‘The Buddha’ they may actually take on a life of their own due to our own power.

In turn, it may be irrelevant if god exists or not. We may very well be the power that made God and in turn we are the force that makes our Solar System God to actually exist. We do indeed have creative power and I know this to be true. Our prayers and thoughts to this collective GOD will indeed provide energy and sentience which in turn powers the one God of our imaginations to have a powerful spiritual energy.

Keep in mind that the same thing is happening with a sentient race 100,0000 light years away and even if God could think in terms of light years it would take forever for a thought to transverse such a distance minus all the attenuation that must occur since we live in a physical realm.

Therefor an equal yet separate GOD would be created by a totally distant yet unobtainable group of sentient beings and that could be repeated countless times in our own galaxy.

Now that there are a billion or more Galaxies and one would do the math. One must then understand that there could never be one supreme being but it could be possible to have an assembly of sorts and they could then democratically by the very nature of time and space decide on things such as alternating the courses of comets by alternating the shift of polarity, gravity or other means to their avail in order to save the sentient beings that they like.

You never and you never ever will here such talk ever again Matt and I am a true mind and this is one of your most interesting comments you will ever receive. I share this to you because you are a good friend of mine and I want to give you mind which I just did.

@mattbrowne You know I am a mind amongst just 6 / 6.100.100 + x with such advanced Spiritual thought. I also believe that Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed and etc… do exist even if they never really did.

It is our spiritual energy that the multitudes invest into the spiritual life forces of these ideas.
You know how strong a few billion voices are in prayer when they all focus on the same thing?

Jesus is real, Buddha is real and Muhammad is real and God is most real since all people on earth now are mainly Monotheistic hence the spiritual energy we feed “God” gives our God the most energy. I am a 21st century student of physical spirituality since I do not believe in superstition, magic and other absurd paranormal events. Also the Gaea, moon and Sun may have some semblance of a life to them albeit very strange to our carbon based life form conception of it.

ETpro When the Nazis came to power they took over major companies (like auto companies…perhaps they made decisions for them like which dealerships they had to drop?) and set up offices to manipulate the banks and other financial systems. Hmmmmm…... That doesn’t sound very good!

@ItsAHabit Neither is letting the economy collapse. Besides, how is that appreciably different from letting a small group of über-rich people seize total control over elections, politicians, and every industry while leaving the other 99.99% of us with no real power?
At least politicians are technically accountable to the voters as opposed to not being accountable to anyone at all.

@ItsAHabit So, Aristocracy is better than even the merest hint of equality?! Unfortunately, that belief is why millions of Americans are starving and/or sick and yet Conservatives have a lot of popular support.

Sorry, but when you start judging a person’s fitness to live by their finances, you cease to be a human to me. When dollars mean more to you than lives, my asshair means more to me than you.

@ItsAHabit The Nazis didn’t seize industries temporarily for the sake of their economy. THey merged the corporate leadership with the party elite. The Corporations welcomed this takeover, because the Nazis broke all unions, reduced wages, aand provided slave labor to the their corporatist friends.

If you are suggesting that Obama’s loans to GM and Chrysler are the same thing, that is absurd. They were loans. No industry has been nationalized. THe companies are paying back the loans with interest to the US taxpayers. And our economy today is a world better for it than had we let both companies slide into bankruptcy. That would have added millions more in direct employes, dealers and suppliers to the already horrendous number of unemployed. More houses would have gone into foreclosure. More banks would have failed. We would probably still be on the dwindling spiral that would have caused.

Nobody is saying fascism is good. What Bush and Obama did to prevent the second great depression has not one whit of fascism in it.

@ItsAHabit Some of those loans have been repaid already, and while that may not have allowed for a hiring spree, it did prevent more than a few layoffs and allow some CEOs to collect an annual bonus instead of having to ride a Golden Parachute.
I agree that it wasn’t a great solution, but you gotta do what you gotta do when the times get tough, and if that means having to choose between the lesser of two evils then so be it. After all, being in power (political, corporate, or otherwise) means that you will often have to make tough, unpopular decisions. I am sure that Washington would’ve rather used the money for something other than bailouts, and would prefer to keep spending to a minimum, but would it have been worth the cost?